Knowledge Center

Seizing the information advantage

Information never stops. As every minute passes, more is created and we forge more connections to it. But what does that mean for businesses? It’s no longer enough to manage information risk and remain compliant. To compete, organisations need to extract and use the value their information holds. New research from Iron Mountain and PwC, forms the first-ever information value index. Watch the video to find out:

What stops businesses from extracting information

Who takes ultimate responsibility

How the successful are different

Transcript:

Iron Mountain asked the research team at PwC how, and to what extent, enterprise and mid-market-level businesses are using their information to gain a competitive advantage.

Christian Toon (PwC)- Many organisations are struggling to really get to grips with the value of their information, and it’s a real challenge for some because they’re only interested in revenue protection or avoiding a data breach.

76% of respondents from the survey and 85% from North America saw the top information management priorities as avoiding a data breach. But surely that’s just protecting the information. What about realising its potential?

Only about a quarter of respondents, 21% in Europe and 28% in North America are using information to help increase their speed to market.

Claire Reid (PwC)- Around three-quarters of the companies we surveyed—72% in Europe and 79% in North America—regard information as a business asset. On average, just a third of data analysts could extract this value.

Business leaders understand that information is an asset—but have not translated that understanding into a skills question. These businesses are telling us that information has helped them improve decision making, increase revenue and understand the customers better. Its potential in other areas has been under-exploited.

Less than one in ten firms are using their information to help boost product development. Just half of European firms are using information to help enhance product or service innovation. North America is doing better, with 65% of companies in Canada and the United States using information for innovation.

To survive and thrive in the new information economy, businesses need to learn how to innovate and analyse new forms of data. It is critical that companies come to grips with this and adopt a responsible, yet proactive approach to information risk and value—not just to protect the business, but to let it breathe.